Tracing the History of a Vintage WW1 Razor - Part 1: The Khaki Sets

Read all eight parts of the story here:
Part 1: The Khaki sets.
Part 2: Searching for Pvt. Robert Mercer.
Part 3: Robert Mercer Joins the Army.
Part 4: Over There.
Part 5: Battle.
Part 6: At Wars End.
Part 7: What Became of Robert Mercer?
Part 8: Fathers and their children
Part 9: Robert Mercer and Little Chicago


Hello fellow shaving fans.

In this post I am trying to examine the history of my recently acquired Gillette WW1 Khaki set. I hope the post will be interesting for DE shavers with an affinity for vintage shavers and history in general. If you do not really care that much about history (I assume that you care about razors a lot since you are here), you will very likely find this post boring… So read on at your own risk – You have been warned!

Fortunately there is quite a bit of history to be discovered for this particular razor-set - and I do not want to omit any details - so I have decided to split it up in to smaller parts, this being part 1.

As described in an earlier post, I recently acquired a Gillette Khaki set:

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/gillette-khaki-set-thumb-tacks-and-much-much-more.56166/


Note: The thumb-tacks in the corners were included, so the mirror (in the lid of the box) could be hung on the posts in the trenches or in the barracks.

The Gillette Khaki-sets were made in 1918-19. 3.5 million sets were made especially for the US army to hand out to the troops as part of the regular equipment. Gas warfare was common in World War 1, and if the gas masks were to be effective, the soldiers had to be clean shaven. That is supposedly the reason why the razors were part of the equipment in WW1 as opposed to WW2. The soldiers literally had to shave to stay alive.

This explanation has been cast in doubt though by army historian Richard Steward, who theorizes that the razors were handed out primarily to prevent lice.

A wide range of Khaki sets and US service sets (the ones in metal cases) were produced by Gillette, but only the ones labelled “Property US Army” with J serial numbers were delivered directly to the military and handed out to the troops. The other sets (labelled: “Made in U.S.A.”) were sold in stores.


Note: The pictured sets are (sadly) not a part of my collection. The images are shamelessly copied from random web-pages.

It has been speculated that these events are the main reason why safety razors became more common than straight razors after the war, and also the reason why Gillette became a leader in the field. 3.5 million US soldiers simply came to enjoy safety razors and Gillettes in particular.

The huge amount of produced Khaki sets also makes them fairly easy to come by, even today 99 years later, but the sets are rarely complete. It is common to find sets without thumb-tacks, mirror or blade-box. Also, to a collector it is important to point out, that a lot of the sets were produced after November 11th 1918, and therefore they were handed out to the troops after the last shot of the war had been fired. Khaki sets with a high probability of having been “in the trenches” of World War 1, therefore need to have relatively low serial numbers.



The Khaki set that I am examining here has the serial number J 2164, which makes it one of the early Khaki sets, and therefore probably present during the active part of the campaign of the US expeditionary Force. Thankfully we have more information about the razor, to support this.

When I bought the razor, a note about the original owner was included. This is the original photo from eBay:



Further communication with the seller revealed, that he had bought the razor several years ago, at a public auction in Pennsylvania where several items from Pvt. Robert Mercer had been up for sale.

The information about Robert Mercer gave me a big fat thread to pull on. And there were several things to discover.

Read all about these things in part 2 of this examination, which I will post as soon as I can get it finished. (Most likely tomorrow)

Go to:
Part 2: Searching for Pvt. Robert Mercer.

 

Enjoyed reading this. Thanks for posting, looking forward to part 2

 

Very informative! I'm looking forward to part two.

 

Interesting!

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Great post!

 

Keep it coming. This is awesome reading.


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4.0 job! A great read! Looking forward to the next installment

 

Great post, although the mere act of shaving itself wouldn't have prevented lice. There are numerous accounts from those who were in the trenches, posted on Project Gutenberg, of the hand removal of lice in their clothing. Seemed there was an ongoing battle between Man and Louse (along with Rat). I'm going to have to go with the gas mask explanation. (On an aside, my son worked at a chemical plant and had to stay clean-shaven for much of the same reason, in case there was a release and he had to don a respirator.)

 

Great thread! Thanks for sharing this with us. I too look foreward to part two! Good Show Sir!

 

I have to remain clean shaven for a respirator as well where I work, so the gas mask explanation seems more plausible to me as well.

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Thanks for the kind replies...
Got a family-gathering today, but trying to get part 2 ready anyway...

As to he lice issue, i'm partial to going for the gas mask reason also. But I find it odd that an issue like this could only be resolve through the speculation of historians. I think that there is good reason to expect that there must exist some kind of ww1-era document, that gives the explanation for ordering 3.5 million razors for the army! That is one big order!

 

National Archives maybe? (Archives.gov)

 

While this is a great project and read, go enjoy your family! We'll still be here when ya get back.

 

Would this be a khaki set aswell? I mean it doesn't have khaki written on it, but it is khaki and it is WWI vintage..The only real differences is
1: it doesn't have the word "Khaki" printed on it
2: it's a better razor than the Gillette.... I know, I know....YMMV....

@wchnu , do you have one of these?....So cool......I don't have one, these pics are just off the web...

 

Nice post! I have one of these sets and I have a WW2 khaki set as well. Very informative.

 

Besides the OP's Gillette set, there is also a folding Gillette Khaki set. Also, there were apparently Autostrop khaki sets (also marked Property of US Army).

 

I have 3 of them..a Damaskeene...A valet auto strop and a 1924. The Valet set still has the mirror.

 

A few ads from the period:

 

Yep, National Archives could be a good place to look.
The downside is, that we might be looking for a paragraph in a document labeled something entirely other than "The document that made King Gillette very wealthy" ☺️
When Richard Steward thinks that lice is the Main reason for handing out razors, it attests that such documents are not in general rotation among historians writing war history today, so some digging is needed i think.

 

Very interesting that the army might have handed out Gem sets as well. I did not know that.

Nice adds by the way. I just love the old shaving adds

And family-time won the day by the way. I will post part 2 tomorrow.